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For my roommate

B

BEdZ

Gawd
Joined
Feb 12, 2004
Messages
701
I'm moving out in this next month and my roommate will need a machine of his own. He is a civil engineer and does a good deal of CAD work. Addiitionally, he would like a machine to play DVDs and a bit of gaming. His employer will pay for 1/4 of the cost and he wants to keep his portion of the cost around $800. He was looking at the Dell Dimension 8400. I would build him a system but since I won't be around to support it and he is pretty damn clueless when it comes to computers, we think it's better for him to buy a machine.

First question, is would an A64 based system be better for him and are their any larger premade manufactures that sell them.

Thanks.
 
Hmmm... I'm not sure of the bench difference in CAD type applications between an Intel HT proc and a A64. Anyone enlighten us?

If he plans to do quite a bit of gaming A64 procs have proven superior in many benchmarks. To be honest, if you want better than "Alienware and Voodoo" power for a lower price, look no further than www.thunderboxpc.com. The tech support there is fabulous! Most of the time you'll speak to the guy who built your system!

They provide genuine parts, no propriatary OEM bullshit. If you and your friend get on the phone with thunderbox, they'll work with you to get all the power you need (and nothing you don't! they're not pushy at all) for a low price.

Actually, take a look at the site. If you're interested and want to talk more, PM me.
 
nudge...any more thoughts on the difference between an A64 and Intel HT for CAD?

and thanks Xaeos
 
Intel HT with CAD actually makes performance worse, give or take. Some cases of 5% to 20% loss. The HT is generally good for software that compresses/uncompresses data quite a bit. The AMD64 platform is actually just as fast or better with CAD due to their shorter pipelines and they're still great for multitasking, if not better than Intel's. So, it's really an AMD win. And, you save money in the long run going for AMD.

And, I second the Thunderbox PC company. Had two friends who bought from there. They were genuine people to work with.

-J.
 
It really depends on the actual CAD software he uses. According to some of our CAD designers, AutoCAD had built in enhancements that provide superior performance on P4s with HT. It's also proven time and time again that A64s take the slight edge in games, while P4s take the slight edge in design/content creation work. It really doesn't matter for a student, because either processor is quite fast. My experience from building machines is that the AMD chips may cost slightly less, but the Intel chipset boards cost less than equivalent AMD supprted boards, so in the end, the cost is about the same.
 
Yes, it does depend on the software itself. Some are built on HT code, some not. But some of those I was looking at was AutoCAD 2004 and AMD fared well on that test for some reason. So, I'd go for AMD if I were you.

BTW, I did some checking with the prices. Two of the top products for each class.

AMD----------------------Intel
Athlon 64 3200+ - $282.00 Pentium 4 - $277.00
Abit KV8 K8T800 - $91.00 Asus P4C800 DELUXE i875P - $163.00
Total - $373.00--------Total - $440.00

(But the truth is, they both are fast).

-J.
 
Get a Decent 400 Watt PSU
athlon 64 3200+ 1MB cache
Mobo of your choice since they are about the same in price+features (mostly)
1 gig of house brand pc 3200 ram
16x DVD-Rom
52xCD-RW
120 Gig ATA 133 8MB cache HD
Any case he likes (about $130)
6800GT
Audigy 2
and get a used sony p1110 monitor (21 inch)
and get a logitech keyboard and mouse combo

um yeah i haven't priced any of this but it should be around 1200 for the whole deal, any thing im forgeting?

if its too much you can ditch the monitor and get one less expensive, and less ram, (more loading time but it will save some $)
 
I use Autocad 2002 on my 2.8c and haven't ever had a problem with it. If you're building a new system though, you might as well get A64 unless he doesn't want to pay for it. and 1 GB of ram and a decent video card ( Ihave a 9800pro) should be a fine cad system for what he's going to be doing. Now for serious 3d drafting and rendering you could go for a lot better system, but for most cad applications the average computer can handle it.
 
Yea, i too vote for the AMD64 if he want's to keep this computer for any length of time. (ide recommend the Xeon-64...... but that's too much money).

For CAD, a good video card at least 1gb of ram is all you need to get the job done.

I would not recommend Dell if you are on a budget. or any of the big names for that matter. (if he's not that "computer savy"...... its best to not have him talking with outsourced tech support, IMO).

ive never worked with thunderbox PC

But i have done business with www.cyberpowerinc.com and so have my friends. Dirt cheap prices on parts, and a very wide selection. Awsome tech support.... as with what someone else said, you'll probably get the person who built the computer ^_^. They know what there talking about.

So, maybe a AMD64 3000+, nice little MSI motherboard (or something similar), 1gb of ram, nice little graphic card such as a ATI 9800, and he should be all set.

~Hope this helps
 
GeForceX said:
Yes, it does depend on the software itself. Some are built on HT code, some not. But some of those I was looking at was AutoCAD 2004 and AMD fared well on that test for some reason. So, I'd go for AMD if I were you.

BTW, I did some checking with the prices. Two of the top products for each class.

AMD----------------------Intel
Athlon 64 3200+ - $282.00 Pentium 4 - $277.00
Abit KV8 K8T800 - $91.00 Asus P4C800 DELUXE i875P - $163.00
Total - $373.00--------Total - $440.00

(But the truth is, they both are fast).

-J.
Click to expand...

Did you intentionally pick a hellishly overpriced Intel board? Swap yours out for the AI7, which weighs in around $90. Hell even the IC7-G is a lot less than that.
 
Thanks for the recommendations guys. It's appericated. He uses AutoCAD 2000 at work so I am assuming that any drafting he does at home will be on the same program. So he'll want the HT right? He does very little gaming. I lived with the guy for 2 years now and we've only broken out the PS2 two or three times and I don't see that changing. Acutally, right now I think his girlfriends kid has it at her house.

I'm still catching up on video cards. Damn things change so fast anymore. I built my last system about a year ago and still catching up on the newer cards. Any recommendations from a purely drafting standpoint?

Thanks again
 
Purly drafting? how about 4 Xeon-64 chips with a Nvidia quadro FX3000. that should work, no?

Lol, j/k

Like i said before.......... he's on a BUDGET!!!!! thus if he plans on keeping his computer for any length of time......... (ex more then 2 years)........ i recommend the AMD64. Its a great bang for the buck, even if he does 0% gaming.

And a ATI radeon 9800pro for ~200$US is a great deal... that's the card i would recommend for his budget computer.

~Hope this helps
 
The A64 system would possibly do better with Acad2000, but if it comes down to supporting the system yourself or getting a P4 from Dell or elsewhere, get the P4
 
djnes said:
Did you intentionally pick a hellishly overpriced Intel board? Swap yours out for the AI7, which weighs in around $90. Hell even the IC7-G is a lot less than that.
Click to expand...

LOL. Yes, I did. :p But I picked out the best of the best from each. I'm sure an IC7-G would be fine as well. So, I guess the costs are really the same indeed! Is Intel already catching up?

In all seriousness though-- A64 system for CAD.

-J.
 
Thanks again guys. I think he's going to go with a Cyberpower systems A64 2800+ machine with the GigaByte GA-K8NS Pro, 1 gig ram and Seagate 80gig SATA. Feel free to make suggestions on changes. (http://www.cyberpowersystem.com/custom/cfga64.asp?v=d)

One question on video cards. Per the suggestions (thank you tower17), he's going to go with an ATI card however the following options (in the 9600) are available:

Special ATI Radeon 9600 SE 128MB DDR AGP 8X w/ TV-Out & DVI [+28]
ATI RADEON 9600 PRO 128MB DDR AGP 8X W/ TV-OUT & DVI [+86]
ATI RADEON 9600 XT 128MB DDR AGP 8X W/ TV-OUT & DVI [+126]
ATI RADEON 9600 XT 256MB DDR AGP 8X W/ TV-OUT & DVI [+136]
ATI RADEON 9600 PRO 256MB DDR AGP 8X W/ TV-OUT & DVI [+112]
ATI RADEON 9800 SE 128MB DDR AGP 8X W/ TV-OUT & DVI [+76]
ATI RADEON 9800 PRO 128MB DDR AGP 8X W/ TV-OUT & DVI [+192]
ATI RADEON 9600 256MB DDR AGP 8X W/ TV-OUT & DVI [+72]
Click to expand...

So, this is where I get flustered! Five 9600s and 2 9800s! Video card manufactures piss me off. Too many damn options. :confused:

So which one should I choose?

Thanks again, guys!
 
just ordered my new system from CyberPowerInc today ^_^

Yea, um, i would recommend the ATI radeon 9800Pro (not SE). it might be the most expensive option there, but relativly its an Awsome deal, best bang for the buck for a budget computer IMO.
 
For those vid card prices - is that replacing a base video card or only to add the video card?
 
That's the price they charge for it ontop of the default, which in the case of the link he gave us, is a nVidia GeForce-4 MX440 64MB DDR AGP 8X EDITION w/ TV-OUT.

The option to have "NO video card" is -44$us from the base of a geforce-4 mx440 64mb..........

So in essence, the ATI radeon 9800PRO (128mb DDR ram) is going to cost 236$US from CyberPowerInc, which is 13$US more then newegg charges (newegg price is without shipping).

~Hope this helps
 
Just on a side note BEdz, sometimes if you chose one of their "named" systems, instead of just customizing it from scratch, it might be cheaper.

Fool around a little, and compare system to system, and you might find some to be cheaper then others. (when i say chose a "named" system, i mean customizing it to what you would want).

Some systems also have freeshipping, and some also qualify for the "instant" coupon code, which takes off 5% of the computer price.

As with the other parts, they seem fine.

~Hope this helps
 
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